In an attempt at the fair and balanced coverage for which the Fox News network is known, “Outnumbered” host Harris Faulkner spoke Wednesday to both Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla., shown above left) and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I., above right) about the Paul Manafort investigation and trial.
The discussion almost immediately turned into a shoutfest, with the guests and the host looking alternately confused, bemused and annoyed, as Mediaite reported.
There was a lot of interrupting, too.
“Democrats are running on a commitment to ‘drain the swamp’ to end the pervasive corruption in Washington that has made government work for the special interests and not for them,” Cicilline said at one point during the segment.
That made Rep. Gaetz raise his eyebrows.
Faulkner, also looking shocked, said, “Really? You’re going to [use the] president’s [own] talking points on that?”
“Look at what he does, not [at] what he says,” Cicilline responded. “This is the most corrupt administration in our history.”
Faulkner wanted Rep. Gaetz to talk at that point — but Cicilline continued and began rattling off statistics until Faulkner stopped him and bluntly called his stunt “filibustering.”
As for Gaetz, he asserted that the Paul Manafort indictments had nothing to do with President Donald Trump or the GOP position on the Manafort situation. Cicilline looked to prove that false — or at the very least, as he said, “wishful thinking.”
What Cicilline did get across was that he knows how to interrupt.
“What we need to do is make sure that Mr. Mueller can complete his investigation,” Cicilline said after some cross-talk among the three, with more unfinished sentences.
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“No one is stopping him,” Faulkner zinged back.
“He fired the FBI director,” Cicilline explained, to which Faulkner simply said: “Oh, my goodness.”
“I have got to go visit Rhode Island because I want to see if everybody in Rhode Island is like you,” Faulkner said later. “‘Cause I know you’re a nice man, you just won’t let anybody finish.”
See the sparks fly in this television segment as shown in the video below.
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